We've had a great turnout, surpassing our initial goal, so we want to thank all of our contributors for that. But we'd still like to make a final push to see just how much money we can raise. Our initial request of $1500US will fund a series of laboratory analyses we need for our experiment, but anything we raise beyond that will constitute a fund for local farmers to implement other projects to promote achira as a crop and income generator. In our big final event that we held last Sunday, farmers and local institutions expressed interest in taking more concrete steps such as improving agroindustrial processing and marketing channels for achira. I will be working with them to formulate project proposals to present to large institutional funders, and if they have a fund of their own that they can leverage to show their personal investment and commitment, their ideas will be more attractive to potential funders.

So if you've been wanting to donate to our cause but haven't gotten around to it yet, now is the time! The campaign will be receiving contributions until midnight, US Pacific time. Thanks so much.